Fingerless mittens ... a brief recipe
(I have updated the post to add the above thumbnail as the original one below doesn't show up)
I started making mittens when I was in my teens when I worked out how to increase for the thumb. Now I'm improving on how to use double pointed needles and reading detailed posts like those by @jamethiel has given me confidence to continue to use double pointed needles. I haven't knitted that many mittens considering they're not hard really, but I will be making more as the weather turns colder. Incidentally, I have actually also crocheted a few mittens and it can be simpler.
For these mittens I used my old-fashioned wing-it-and-see method. So this post is a sort of invitation to try this method... I totally admire the discipline of following a pattern and doing tension swatches, but I find you have to have the 'right ingredients' for that : yarn, size of needles and so on. I normally don't.
I found this pair of mittens the other day while tidying up and thought I’d share my haphazard process - it's like a recipe.
Nothing special about the colour or stitch... they're like a blank canvas :D
I used size 4 knitting needles and had a ball of less than 50g of double knitting pure organic Llanwenog sheep wool from a Welsh farm sort of near us. They have now become really expensive for my budget, but if you’re interested their website is here.
I did not do a tension square but I had a general idea of how many stitches I was going to need and then just measure every so often for length.
1- I cast on altogether 33 stitches.
2- I knitted in stocking stitch for 15 rows purling all the wrong sides.
3- I then started the thumb increases. I knitted 16 stitches. I made 1 stitch (put a stitch marker here), I knitted 1, I made one (put a stitch marker on this stitch), then knitted 16 stitches.
4- I kept knitting and increasing next to the marker (which I moved each time so that the increase forms an upside down triangle) until there are 16 stitches, 15 stitches, 16 stitches.
5- I left the 15 stitches for the thumb on hold using a safety pin. I then knitted the 32 stitches using stocking stitch for 14 rows.
6- Knit 1, Purl 1 for 3 rows.
7- Cast off.
8- I picked up those stitches left on hold and knit one row.
9- Knit 1, purl 1 for 6 rows.
10- Cast off.
11- Sew the seams.
I could embellish the mittens any way, but I wanted them plain…
I am personally allergic to wool and get quite bad eczema on my hands so this Llanwenog wool is a bit too much for me. I normally just buy any yarn from charity shops because it’s recycled there. To be honest the mittens are much warmer than I expected and I actually wear them on top of my acrylic fleece gloves and they’re great like that :D
photos and diagrams by @cryptocariad... it's all original work
As always special thanks go to @crosheille and @crystalize for hosting the #needleworkmonday community 🌸🌸🌸
Here's my pair of "that can't be that difficult"-mittens. They were knit in the round - I knit socks before and instead of a heel I would now work a thumb. Well, something vaguely thumb-like I got ;)
I found that fingerless mittens shouldn't be done in a too thick yarn: if it's that cold that you need thick mitts your finger tips want to be warm too. Like you wrote, a combination of thin fingered gloves and fingerless mitts over them should work best if you have to work with your hands.
But I love these mittens and I'm proud of them :)
And you should be very proud of them @muscara... They're gorgeous and I love the happy colour of the yarn :D
I would also add that it's really useful to have longer mittens like yours. I was short of wool at the time for mine and only had a little length left so every stitch 'counted'.
I am always impressed with "makers". Your mittens look great. Doing them without a pattern but then being able to clearly jot down some notes that others could follow, you are a very accomplished knitter :)
Thank you @steven-patrick ... Sometimes I don't count stitches because it isn't really crucial to the end product, eg when knitting or crocheting a scarf. In this case it was important to know what to do when I reached a 'milestone' and that was determined by the shape, width and length of my hand...
I used two needles rather than the usual 5 double pointed ones or a round needle... Those two variations would have been trickier for me :)
Your stiches are sooo neat! I still must practise a lot I guess. Thank you for this formula. I am still afraid of knitting small items, and right now it so hot here (35°C) but as Eddard Stark always say "Winter is comig"
Oh, thank you @neumannsalva... I never see my stitches as neat - also I have never watched Game of Thrones 😂
It's been really hot here too but, thank goodness, it's drizzling today - less watering to do !
Your really pretty mittens and its recipes, so nice. I didn't know people could be allergic to some kind of wool tho, I wonder how you can tell its the exact one you're allergic to so as to prevent you from buying it in stalls. Anyways We don't really have a very cold weather around here so mittens are quite uncommon. But yours is so nice gives rooms for the hands
Thank you, @wondermaey :D
I don't worry that much about the allergy to pure wool yarn because it only affects me if and when in direct contact with the wool. It is no problem when I wear cardigans and jumpers because I wear undergarments. It's definitely a problem for gloves and scarves as they get too itchy.
I have been told that I'm actually allergic to 'lanolin' because I reacted to an ointment to help my eczema - that was slightly funny at the time because I was allergic to the cream that was supposed to help me...
There are so many fibres to use when crocheting, knitting and so on : acrylic mixes, cotton, bamboo, hemp or flax even alpaca... The list is endless and some are too expensive for my experiments so I stick to the cheap 'acrylic' yarns.
The feel of wool is nice and I live in the countryside so I often see sheep... and I have in the past even done a bit of spinning to make my own yarn so it's not that bad :D
Incidentally, the mittens stretched a bit because I wear them on top of my thin (human-made ) fleece gloves ...
Hello @cryptocariad, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
Thank you very much indeed for your visit to my blog and for your support @creativecrypto. I appreciate it :D
Ya know @cryptocariad, I would like to wing it more when it comes to crocheting. I’m so used to having a pattern but it’s nice to just eye a project ever so often.
I love these knitted gloves. Knitting patterns are still a foreign language to me but hopefully soon that will change. Agghhh sooo much I want to learn and do but not enough time or energy to do them right now. Thanks for sharing~
Thank you @crosheille... Channelling energy is the main thing sometimes. I've always done a bit of this and a bit of that, but looking back I thing it would have been better to just specialise a bit and get a better finish on things ...
You’re welcome. Yes that’s a good point. I am glad I was able to spend so much time on crocheting and now I am so comfortable with it. I’m ready to do the same with knitting and sewing now :)
Qué bonitos! Siempre he querido hacer unos mitones, me parecen elegantes y fashion. Gracias por compartir el patrón. No sabía que eres alérgica a la lana. Saludos
Gracias @jicrochet.
Mi amiga ,@bluebell14 que no ha podido escribir su blog desde hace tiempo, estuvo crocheteando unos mitones sin dedos para un grupo de niño/as en una escuela local y al final terminé ayudándole también.... Esos mitones a crochet no tenían amago de pulgar eso si...era un rectángulo y luego se cosía...
Tengo asma y eczema... me afecta a veces pero hace un tiempo he tenido hartos problemas en las manos y es frustrante no poder hacer bien las cosas...
I skipped the tension swatches always as it took more time than I had! Also, like you said, all the ingredients have to match!
I like fingerless gloves, especially when the weather turns cold, and I don't have to take it off to use my phone :-)
Thank you @icybc and, yes, I agree they're often more practical :D
The fingerless mittens are beautiful @cryptocariad! And thank you for sharing the pattern. Blank canvas calls for some embroidery opportunity from your Wingdinglish drawing? Hehe. Sorry about the eczema. It sucks to have eczema. Sometimes, for unknown reasons. Good that you know what causes it. Avoid it at all costs!
Thank you @marblely no worries about the eczema at the moment it's under control, but it can flare ...
I did wonder re embroidering a windinglish character, ha ha... great minds think alike... I wore the mittens like that for ages and every so often I'd think which one is the right/left one (I need to mark them)... I will do and I will show you, but I was also tempted to just embroider a 3D rose ... I will share a photo when I make it. Thanks for the comment :D
Ah ok ok.. Under control is good. The flare part is unavoidable sometimes. Its as though they have a need to show themselves every now >:(
Ooo 3D rose would be nice too. Can't wait to see what your embroidery, whichever you decide :)
I was very fond of such gloves when we lived in Ukraine. there were very cold winters and my hands often got cold in ordinary mittens because I had to take them off to take something. And these gloves did not have to be removed - it was very convenient. But I wore them with a hood for my fingers. I found my old photo :)
And when you wear woolen gloves over acrylic gloves, you do not have allergies? I did not hear about the allergy to wool. such an allergy is permissible only in hot countries like our Israel :)
That's a lovely photo, @tali72, thanks. Actually @jamethiel posted about her mittens with a flap that she made here:
https://steemit.com/needleworkmonday/@jamethiel/needlework-monday-the-mittens-are-done
It's eczema on the hands... it's been labelled as discoid and it comes and goes (it's not contagious at least), but itchy wool makes it worse... I don't react to human-made fibres for some reason :D
Yes, I remember this post @jamethiel. I'm sorry that you have eczema, but I'm glad that there are periods of remission. check your liver. the cause of eczema often are interruptions in the work of the liver, nervous stress and nutrition.
Thank you @tali72... I would say it's definitely stress related !